A stadium is a desirable venue for multiple purposes such as football, baseball, soccer, as well as other social and civic events. The variety of activities presents a challenge to stadium personnel to convert the synthetic surface from among different configurations for a particular sport or event while providing the respective field quality expected. This is especially difficult when conversion of the sport field must be completed in a short period of time such as when the playing surface of a sporting event held during the day is to be converted to a different playing surface or social setting to be held later that evening.
Efforts well known in the industry have been made to develop a conversion system using natural grass trays. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of these trays may need to be utilized for a full field conversion between an artificial surface to a natural grass surface. These natural grass trays have proved to be very costly and difficult to use because they are especially made not only to hold the natural grass, but also to grow the grass thereon. Thus, the trays typically require appropriate drainage and moisture retention. Because the growing conditions of the natural turf are critical, the cost of maintaining the trays is high as they need to be tended to on a daily basis. Therefore, in winter, the trays usually are transported south to grow and be maintained, or are heated when used in northern climates.
Known natural grass trays—for example those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,595,021 and 5,187,894—describe natural turf units for stadiums and other activity surfaces that are transportable between different locations, wherein a first location is for the performance of the desired activity, and the second location is for the storage, growth, and/or maintenance of the turf units.
Synthetic grass turf assemblies have also been used to provide sport surfaces and although their advantages are many, today's infilled synthetic grass turf assemblies are generally permanently installed in stadiums and are thus inflexible and/or incapable of accommodating a variety of playing surfaces or being readily transported or adapted for conversion—either entirely or in part.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method of providing a playing surface including a convertible and transportable synthetic grass turf assembly having an infill layer.